- You do not need any specific technical knowledge (neither PHP nor MySQL) to perform the installation.

- Configuration is performed directly on line through a very simple graphical interface (in particular, you don’t have to modify any configuration file with nebulous code).

- We distribute only a single version of SPIP; it may evolve over time depending on the enhancements introduced, but we take great care not to complicate it with “patches” that you have to fish from all over the shop (to modify SPIP for requirements imposed by a particular hosting ISP for instance).

The public site

The public site developed with SPIP presents the following features:

- A flexible interface entirely customisable by the Webmaster without the need for any knowledge of PHP or MySQL; the SPIP interface is based on HTML which has been supplemented with a relatively simple control language. SPIP does not impose a rigid page layout (such as the “three columns” page so distinctive of phpNuke).

The classic HTML interface isn’t the only navigation format that can be offered to your site’s visitors. The same information, i.e. the same content, can be presented in very different formats. For example, apart from the classic Web navigation you can provide:
— syndication threads XML/RSS— a calendar in iCalendar— Wap navigation (WML),
— Macromedia Flash navigation (unfortunately there’s no example available in a free format...)and any other format which you care to master (cHTML for iMode, XPressTags, XML for Indesign...).

- SPIP includes a cache system for each single page: pages are calculated (from the information pulled out of the database) individually and stored in a cache file; this way, the server is not slowed down by too many MySQL queries and the site is always available even in the case of a database server failure.

- SPIP includes a small search engine based on a word indexing system.

The site structure

The site structure under SPIP is based on a hierarchy of sections. Theoretically speaking, there is no limit to the number of sections: a section can contain as many sub-sections as needed and they, in turn, can contain sub-sections etc. In this way, a site is built by nesting sub-sections into sections.

Articles

The chief "object" used to publish information under SPIP is the article. You can place as many articles as you wish into any section.

- Editing articles is very simple and is performed through an on-line graphical interface.

- Mnemonic shortcuts facilitate the enrichment of typography, the creation of hypertext links, footnotes… laying out an article under SPIP is as easy as writing an e-mail.

- The graphical interface allows you to include images in articles very easily and each article can be represented by its own logo.

- You can associate each article with one or several keywords.

- The publishing date is automatically managed (however, you can modify it if necessary); a second date can be associated with the article, to indicate a prior publishing date for instance (such as an article previously published in a paper magazine).

- Redirection (“ghost” articles): SPIP allows you to create ghost articles (or virtual articles) integrated in the site structure and displayed in the sections’ contents, but which, effectively, point to a page the address of which was defined by the editor (in the same site or even in another site altogether).

News items

To supplement the articles, SPIP includes a system of news items facilitating the publication of short stories such as a press revue (or a web revue).

- In order to facilitate the structuring and positioning of the news items, they can only be installed in the principal sections (sectors) of the site (i.e. the sections located at the site’s root).

- The news items’ structure is very simplified: a title and a text; each news item may be supplemented with a hypertext link.

- Managing the publication of a news item is very simple (two buttons: publish or reject).

- Each news item can be tagged with its own logo.

- The site administrator can disable the use of news items for the whole site.

Forums

SPIP includes a forums system.

- Forums can be associated with articles (one forum per article), sections or news items. The Webmaster can design the site’s interface to either accommodate each article with its own forum or accommodate several articles within a section with the same forum, etc.

- SPIP offers several types of forums: the “free” forums (moderated post-publication, where contributions appear immediately on the public site, and administrators may then delete unwanted messages); forums moderated pre-publication (contributions appear only after being validated by a site administrator); forums by subscription (to be able to take part, every participant must provide their e-mail address in order to receive a password allowing them to post their contributions).

SPIP includes also a private forum system dedicated to the discussions between editors of the site, in the private area.

Petitions

An article can be turned into an online petition in a few clicks.

- SPIP’s petitions are automatically validated by e-mail: the signatory receives a confirmation message checking for the validity of the signature.

- Petition types can be configured very easily: restricting each email address to a single vote, mandatory provision of a web address (in this case the URL’s validity is checked automatically), allowing messages to be posted with votes (signatures).

Statistics

SPIP includes a very simple statistical system to evaluate the popularity of articles and sections.

Editors/administrators

A SPIP site could be managed either by one person or by a team of editors.

- SPIP offers two default levels of access: administrators who manage, among other things, the site structure and the validation of articles, and editors who submit articles.

- The number of administrators and editors is unlimited.

- The public site’s visitors may register to become editors (this registration procedure is automatically managed by SPIP).

- Each author may have their own personal logo which can be uploaded by the author through the system interface (an ID photo for instance).

Syndication

Sites created with SPIP, phpNuke or other content management systems provide a dynamic file containing their latest publications. SPIP is able to analyse such files to determine new content on such other sites:
- you can add as many syndicated sites as you want;
- syndicated sites are associated with the sections of the local site; doing so means that you can create a topical section with links to other sites that deal with the same topic as the current section.

Graphical interface of the public site

The public site’s graphical interface is very flexible. Thanks to a very simple language (proprietary to SPIP), you can create almost any interface.

The most significant feature of this is that you don’t need to know PHP: the Webmaster can, if he wishes so, integrate PHP functions or CGI gateways in his templates. Therefore, you can enrich SPIP with specialised scripts to complement or replace missing functions (such as counters, more powerful search engine…).

Interface of the private area

The private area from where the site is managed provides a very easy to use graphical interface.

- This interface can be adjusted according to the activities of each editor or administrator and according the site’s activity. This means that each author has rapid access to his own articles, and articles submitted for publication are displayed to all participants. Furthermore, the interface is different depending on whether one is editor or administrator.

- Each user can customise his own interface. He can choose between a simplified interface, which displays the main features, and a complete interface. Also, he can slightly alter the graphical layout of the interface.

- When a site accommodates several editors, SPIP becomes a collaborative tool: discussions over articles, hierarchical validations, and several editors able to work on the same articles…

Site settings

Even though the graphical interface and the content management are strictly separated in SPIP (for instance, it is not possible to define the background colour of the public site from the private area, although some recent plugin templates to enable this), it is, nonetheless possible to configure several aspects of the site from within the private area:
- enabling or disabling certain elements of the articles’ contents: such as deciding to disable the use of top titles, subtitles, description, standfirst or postscript, or the date of earlier publishing and the use of keywords;
- configuring (or disabling) public forums;
- deciding to publish articles before their publishing date (this option allows you, for instance, to go on holiday while the site continues to publish your stories);
- disabling the system of news items (as a matter of fact, some sites do not need it; and so by disabling it you would tidy up the interface);
- enabling or disabling the statistics;
- enabling or disabling the search engine.

Editorial follow-up

The system provides several options aimed at facilitating the site’s editorial follow-up:

- dispatching forum contributions to articles’ authors; when a visitor posts a message below an article, that article’s author is informed by e-mail, which allows the relevant author to monitor any activity on articles previously written and published;

- follow-up of editorial activity; if the site is produced by a team of editors, important editorial announcements may be automatically sent out to an e-mail address (ideally, to a mailing list); in this way, members of this list are automatically informed when an article is published or submitted;

- latest news announcement; SPIP can send an automated e-mail summarising the latest publications on the site with a frequency defined by administrators.

Backing up and exporting the database

The site’s Webmaster can back up the database (and thereby create backup files); if the server allows it, this backup can be created in a compressed file, which is faster to download by FTP. Of course, SPIP includes the function necessary to import such a file.